All Forum Posts by: Ryan Spath

@Kristin Caras

We provide a 3 day grace period as a lot of property managers do. However if this is not outlined in the lease a late payment is a late payment. Does your PM not have some type of online payment application? If not maybe suggest this and write it in the next lease. The online portals automatically apply late fees etc when payments are not made when specified.

Best of luck and congratulations on the rental!

@CJ B.

Unless it states in your lease that the tenant is responsible you are. Use this as a learning lesson and add new language to your leases moving forward.

@Brian Ellis we were having a similar problem with a property that recently became vacant. Our rent was inline to everything in the market possibly a bit lower ($25) we received tons of calls/texts had multiple showings and did not get any real interest in the application process. We typically advertise on Realtor, Zillow, hot pads, etc. We decided to post the property on Facebook market place and had 3 applications in hand within 48 hours, possibly give this a shot. Another thought which we try to follow is have all your properties turn in the summer time as this tends to be busier. Best of luck!

When in college none of my landlords gave me a gift ever, not "hobby" landlords or the multiplex. It was not something that I expected to get. This does seem to be a nice idea but in theory only, you have to agree with the above that once you scale up to more units you do not want to have the tenants expecting a gift from you. Provide clean, affordable housing and repair items as needed and this is gift enough.

BP community- I received an email from a tenant at one of our SFH that things with her relationship have reached a point that she can no longer live with the person. She informed me that she has moved out of the property and wants to meet to give me her garage door opener and set of keys etc. I called the tenant and we had a conversation and she understands she is legally bound to the lease, she is also aware of the clause in the lease that states should the lease be broken there will be a financial penalty. She says the other party has the intention of remaining in the residence, and she would guess he would intend on moving a room-mate in.

I have a call schedule tomorrow morning with the other party that is on the lease.

After speaking to the other party and understanding his intentions assuming he intends to stay do I make any amendment to the lease releasing her of liability? Do I just lease the lease alone and conduct business as usual? 

She mentioned he would want to have a 3rd party move in which would of course be subject to an approval process. If this is in fact the intention do I simply terminate the current lease and create a new one? If so do I increase the rent to the current market rent?

They signed an 18 month lease with 12 months remaining. Based on my research for comparable properties using rentometer, hotpads, and craigslist this property would easily rent for $150-$200 more a month due to the current demand.

Not really sure how to go about this one and any experience or advice is really appreciated.

Thank you!

Heidi- You should consider managing the property yourself or at least doing the showings/taking the calls. With this much activity there must be something everyone is noticing that is causing the vacancy. Are the rental requirements possibly to stringent in comparison to other PM firms? You may even consider calling the folks that viewed the property (from the 10 showings) and asking why they did not move forward with your property. Last you can always lower your rent which will allow for a larger pool of folks.

Best of luck!

Hello BP community. I am a DIY landlord and one of my tenants reached out and said " the overflow hole in the bathroom sink has a sulfur smell" and "the water has been leaving a yellow buildup around the drains" the tenant has used bleach to attempt to resolve this however it continues to come back. Any suggestions?